Return of Team Debonairs
by Almiaranger
Summary: Set about a year after SoA in the Almia Region.  Aveline Harper wants to be nothing more than to be a Pokemon Ranger.  What happens to Aveline and her fellow rangers when their training is interrupted by the mysterious Team Debonairs?
1. An Exam, my Teacher, and a Ninja Boy

Author's Note: Hiya guys! You know how I said I was gonna start a truth or dare fic? Well, I decided that I didn't feel like making one. It all depends on my mood, you know? Anyway, I did decide however that I'm going to start a ranger fic! Why are you starting a ranger fic, you ask? Well, there aren't too many of them out there, so I think that I'll add this to the collection! I've started arranging the plot of this inside of my head, so I expect to update this soon. I'm already working on chapter two! :)

Oh, and to all of you who are waiting for me to update "Rise of Team Five", you'll be waiting a little bit longer, I am working on the next chapter at the moment.

Disclaimer: Pokémon belongs to Satoshi Tajiri, not me. If it did belong to me, there would be a lot more Pokémon Ranger episodes with my characters in them.

WARNING: There's probably going to be spoilers of the Pokémon ranger games in the plot of my story. If you haven't played the games, then you're probably going to be confused about some things happening in the story.

With all of that stuff said and out of the way, role the chappie! Enjoy, read, and review! By the way, this story will mostly be told from the main character's point of view. You'll find out her name soon enough!

Right now, I'm shaking with excitement. I just can't wipe off the permanent smile that's plastered onto my face. I should probably tell you why I'm so joyful, shouldn't I? I guess I'll just go ahead and tell you then. Tomorrow is my first day of Ranger School! I've wanted to be ranger ever since I was a little kid. They can capture Pokémon so flawlessly and befriend them so easily! Rangers also look so daring and adventurous, too! To me, their attitude is just so contagious. I want to be one of them so much, and tomorrow is my first day of training to become one of them!

I pick up the Ranger School Uniform I'd gotten in the mail earlier today, and set it down on my bed. Next to that, I place a bag of toiletries. Below my toiletries, I lay my text books, notebooks, and pencils. We don't have much to bring to Ranger School. All you really need to bring is a backpack of supplies, a school uniform, and yourself.

Looking over at the alarm clock next to my bed, I can see that it's 9:41 PM. 'Going to bed early would be a smart choice. I want to have plenty of energy for tomorrow' I decide. I carefully pile my supplies into a black messenger bag and put my new uniform on top of my dresser. After that, I crawl into my bed and settle into a warm, comfortable sleep.

"Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Bee. . ." I silence my alarm clock by fumbling with its off switch. Stretching my arms up near the sides of my head, I pull off the sheets and hop out of bed. Next, I walk down to the hall connecting my bedroom and bathroom. Glancing in my mirror, I can see my refection quite well. My messy, shoulder-length, black hair looks like a Pidgey had been nesting in my hair last night. Deep violet eyes have a dull tone to them from only just waking up. My skin has just a touch of tan to it from being out in the summer sun in the previous season. To me, I look kind of strange in morning, seeing an empty space of black hair that my aviator goggles usually occupy. The aviator goggles I wear pretty much all the time were a birthday present from my parents from when I was a young child. The lenses are polarized black, while the outline is pure white. The strap used to adjust its size is colored jet black like my hair, so it's difficult to see it. I was given the goggles so I can see easier while flying on my mom's Skarmory. When I was a little girl, I'd nicknamed her Stella.

After brushing my teeth, hair and taking a quick shower, I head back into my room and pull on my new ranger uniform. It consists of an ocean blue polo shirt and neck tie with a green denim, long-sleeved jacket layered on top of it. A pair of blue denim shorts are around my waist area and upper legs with a black belt wrapped around its top. On my hands are blue, fingerless gloves and on my feet are high, dark brown, leather boots with three straps on each shoe. Okay, so the school uniform isn't to die for, but it's not that horrible. At least there's no plaid skirt involved (I _hate_ plaid skirts!).

"Aveline, what do you want for breakfast?" I hear my mom yell up the stairs. I quickly grab my aviator goggles and strap them onto my head. I'm not very big on breakfast and usually don't eat much during my morning meal. That's one of the reasons why I'm fairly thin. I'm not horribly skinny like some are, but I'm slimmer than the average person.

"Can I just have a granola bar or two?" I respond, running down the stairs and into the kitchen.

My mom sighs and tells me, "Sure, if you want. Do you want me to give you a few to put in your backpack for later? I don't want you to go hungry later on in the day." I nod and she hands me a plastic zip-lock bag with a few granola bars inside. I'm not too hungry, so I eat one and place the three remaining bars in one of my messenger bag's pockets.

My mom asks sadly, "So, are you leaving now?" I nod and hug her tightly.

"Hey, were you gonna leave without sayin' bye to me?" asks my younger brother, as he walks down the stairs leading him into the kitchen. His name is Roland, by the way.

"I guess I have to say bye to you now, don't I?" I say sarcastically. "You have to wait two more years before you can be a ranger!"

"Oh well. When I do, I'll breeze by you easily!" Roland remarks. He brushes aside one of the dark brown bangs.

"Whatever you say, little bro. I've gotta run, okay? Write me while I'm away." I say.

"Sure, sure. Have fun at your new school or whatever. Bye." He hugs me quickly and then runs back up to his room so he can sleep some more. That boy is so lazy!

I jog out the front door with my mom and see Pueltown's entire Harbor. We've only just moved here a few weeks ago from Canalave City in the Sinnoh region, and this place doesn't look that different, honestly. The only major differences are that they're no trainers, no ferry to Full Moon Island, and the fact that this city it quite bigger. This town is beautiful and I'll definitely miss it.

I call out to my Mom's Skarmory, "Hey Stella, would you mind giving me a lift to the Ranger School? It's to the east of Vientown and to the west of Boyleland."

Skarmory nods its head and lowers its neck so I can climb onto its back. "Bye Mom! I'll miss you!" I call out to my mother. She waves sadly, and I take off into the bright blue sky.

There's something about this light blue sky, about these white puffy clouds, that makes me so relaxed. I feel so at ease when I take flight with Stella. My view is slightly shaded due to my polarized goggles, but it doesn't matter. In fact, it even adds to the skies effect on me. I can see a town and a forest far below me. I can even pick out where the ranger base is in the town. Due to the town's appearance and the location of the ranger base, I have a pretty good feeling that I'm hovering above Vientown. I can see a dirt path to the east of us, and I guide Stella towards it. A large, tan and red building comes into my sight. I'm pretty sure that it's my new Ranger School. I check my watch and see that it's almost seven o'clock, just when the principal had told me to arrive. I guide the Skarmory into a dive, and swiftly land her on the ranger school's capture symbol right in front of the school's doors.

"Skarmory, you can fly back to Pueltown now. I have to go. You behave yourself and be nice to my brother, okay?" I tell her. She frowns and squawks at me.

"I don't really care if you don't like my brother. Please just be nice to the family while I'm gone. . ." She nods in response.

What you probably don't know is the fact that I get along with Stella better than anyone else in my family. Even though she's my mom's Pokémon, she never really liked her that much. When my mom was a trainer, she had caught Skarmory as a wild Pokémon. She didn't like her much because of her stubborn attitude, so she dropped her off in a PC Box in the local Pokémon Center. Many years later, I was looking through my mother's PC Boxes and found an odd bird Pokémon with a Flying and Steel type combination. Intrigued by the oddity of the bird, I transported her Pokeball out of the PC and a d released her from her Pokeball. We seemed to get along somewhat well despite her stubborn attitude. My mom and I argued days on end about keeping her out of her Pokeball. This argument is one of the only arguments that I've actually won in my lifetime so far. I can only imagine the chaos that this bird will cause while I'm gone.

I run up to a set of glass double-doors that lead into the school, and push one to the side. I take a step inside and se a tan hallway splitting into three directions in front of me. Then, I continue walking straight and see to stairwells, one leading up and the other down. A sign next to the ascending stairs reads, "Student Dorms," and the sign next to the descending stairs read, "Storage Basement. Do not enter without faculty permission,"

I turn right and see a door with a sign next to it saying, "Principal Lamont's Office". As I open the door, I see many papers scattered around the room. There's a man with grey hair and thick glasses sitting in a chair behind the desk that's closest to the back of the room. He seems to be reading a book.

I bit my bottom lip and think, 'Well this is it, time to talk to my new principal.'

"Are you Principal Lamont?" I ask in attempt to confirm my assumption. The man looks up from his book and smiles brightly.

"And you would be. . ." He questions.

"Aveline; Aveline Harper." I answer him. The principal seems nice enough; he's already smiling at me.

"It's wonderful to meet you Aveline! I have your Styler right here." He rises up from his swivel chair and saunters over to me. The principal places a green device into my hands and continues speaking, "This here is a School Styler. It's used to capture Pokémon in the simplest way possible so you can get a feel for capturing. If you'll follow me outside, you can take your Entrance Exam so we can get a feel for the skills you may already have." I simply nod and follow him outside

"This is the capturing room. Just go inside and complete the exam while I wait outside. Make sure to close the door behind you." Principal Lamont tells me while ushering me inside.

I enter the pitch black room and shut the door as Mr. Lamont has instructed me to do, and then suddenly the lights flick on. Standing in the middle of the room is a man probably in his thirties smirking mischievously.

"Ah hah; you have fallen for my trap! I am Master Kaplan, the leader of Team School! We are the mysterious criminals of this school, and one day we will rule world!" The odd man cackles evilly which successfully sends a shiver down my spine.

"Kaplan; stop it before you give this girl a heart attack!" yells a lady who enters the door behind me. Her deep brown eyes are narrowed at the strange man before me.

The man places his hands on his hips and huffs, "Fine, fine; I'm Mr. Kaplan. I'm the capturing instructor here at the Ranger School and I will also serve as your entrance exam guide." After his little introduction, a tiny electric mouse enters the room through a doggie door built into the room's right wall.

"You will have to use your new School Styler to capture this Pikachu here. Go ahead; you may now capture the Pokémon."

'How am I supposed to use this thing? Whatever, I guess I'll just improvise. I'll press this button here first and see what happens,' I think to myself.

A thin, glowing rod pops up on the end of my styler and a circular device drops onto the floor. I move the Styler so it's next to my face, and the circular device starts floating in the air.

Mr. Kaplan yells to me, "The disc that's floating is called the Capture Disc. Move your styler around to make it move. If you can make a few circles with the capture disc around that Pikachu, it will be captured."

I move my Styler so it's pointing directly at the Pikachu and the Capture Disc rises right in front of my Styler's glowing rod. I move my Styler slowly to the left and flick my wrist forward. The Capture Disc whizzes toward the Pikachu, a glowing blue line flowing behind it. Moving my wrist around in a complete circle, the capture disc responds by zipping around the Pokémon that I'm capturing. In alarm, the Pikachu lets loose a thunder shock which zaps the glowing line that's flowing around it. I quickly stop the capture disc by slowing my constantly moving hand so it won't zap the line. I'm going to assume that something bad will happen if the glowing line or capture disc and the electricity collide. This time I'm lucky enough that the thunder doesn't hit, but I'll have to be more careful about electric Pokémon shocking my styler in the future. I swiftly continue looping the capture disc and glowing line around the yellow mouse and I suddenly heard a loud click. The capture disc flies back inside of an opening built into my styler and the glowing rod on the top retracts. A smiling Pikachu runs up in front of me.

"Pika pi!" The Pikachu chirps, as it runs to my side.

"Why'd Pikachu stop attacking me?" I ask Mr. Kaplan curiously.

"You've captured the Pikachu! Once a Pokémon is captured, you can release it, use it in a Poke Assist, or perform a target clear with it. Since this is just an exam though, you can just release Pikachu."

"And how do I do that?" I ask him.

"Press the "Release a Pokémon" button on your styler. There'll be a picture for each of the Pokémon that you have with you. Press Pikachu's picture and then hit the release button on the touch screen to release him."

I nod in response and follow his directions. After I did so, the Pikachu runs back into the room that he had come from.

"Aveline, that was an S-Rank capture; you put on a great show while capturing that Pikachu! As a reward for capturing Pikachu, you have now earned the rank of Student Ranger!"

"Finally, I've been waiting for this moment for so long! My training as a Pokémon Ranger has finally begun!" I yell and while making my new made-up ranger pose.

"Look at the time!" Mr. Kaplan exclaims. "We only have half an hour before school starts. Ms. Clair over there will escort you to your classroom. Who's your teacher?"

"My teacher's Miss April," I look over to the woman standing next to me. Ms. Clair's the one who had yelled at Mr. Kaplan earlier! She looks like she's around the same age as Mr. Kaplan.

She sticks out her hand and exclaims, "Hello, my name is Ms. Clair! If you'll follow me I can show you where Miss April's classroom is." I shake her hand and we both stroll out of the Capture Room.

"Miss April, can we come in?" Ms. Clair shouts right outside of Miss April's classroom.

"Of course; come on in. Is that a new student you have there?" Miss April asks.

"Mhmm; she's your new student, in fact. I figured you'd like to meet her since she came in early to take her entrance exam. The girl passed with flying colors!" I hear Ms. Clair answers, clapping her hands together in glee.

Ms. Claire and I both enter the classroom. Inside awaits my new teacher, Miss April. I've heard that quite a few famous rangers were once students of Miss April. Two top rangers named Kate and Keith graduated as her students.

The classroom walls are brick red. On the left side of the classroom is a huge window that's about ten feet long. The floor is made up of wooden panels and in the lower right and left corners are two healthy, small trees. Up at the front of the classroom is a desk where Miss April is sitting. In front of her desk are six student desks. The desk colors are brown and pink and brown and blue. A large chalkboard covered a large part of the wall in front of me with a white-faced wall clock at its top.

I walk over to Miss April's desk and stop about two feet in front of it.

"And what would your name be?" Miss April asks me, a bright smile present on her face.

"My name is Aveline Harper," I chirp in response.

"Welcome to Ranger School, Aveline. I'd just like to share a few rules with you. First of all, please be polite and respect all students and teachers here, even if some of the students are, well, a bit odd. Second, put your total effort into everything you do here. Third, have fun! You're here to experience new things and to make new friends, after all."

"BZZZZZZZZZZZ!" I hear a bell in the class room ringing. I hear voices begin to echo in the hallway.

"Oh, that must be the school bell. When the school bell rings, it means that school is starting. When school starts, you should find and wait inside of your classroom for school to start."

I can see a few people around my age wearing the same uniform as I am waiting outside of the class room.

Miss April yells to them, "Come on in, everyone!" Two boys and two girls enter the room. As they enter, I see Miss April quirk her one her eyebrows in what seems to be irritation.

"Where's Dustin?" Miss April asks one of the boys.

The student shrugs and tells her, "None of us know. He left our dorm around twenty minutes before Roman and I got ready."

Suddenly, I hear a gentle tap on the window behind me. I can tell that I'm the only one who hears it since no one else turns to the window. The blinds are down, so I cannot see anything outside. Creeping over to it, I slowly lift up one of the blinds. Behind the glass is a ranger student. His eyes are lime green and his hair is a mousy brown color. He smirks and holds up a piece of paper with a sentence scrawled onto to it in semi-legible handwriting that reads, "Open up the window." I bite my lip and think to myself,

"I might as well." I turn the latches on the window and lift it up as slowly as possible, so no one can hear.

'Now it's time to have, as I like to say, a little fun.' I smirk at my evil thoughts, and walk over to Miss April.

I point to brown haired boy who's climbing through the window and ask her in the most innocent voice I can muster, "Is that the boy that you're looking for?"

A frown becomes present on the brunette teacher's face. The unhappy teacher points to the boy's seat, which happens to be right next to the one that Ms. April had assigned me a little earlier. Dustin grimaces and slowly walks to his seat.

"You've gotten yourself into quite a lot of trouble, Dustin." Ms. April says to Dustin, her voice coated in venom.

I already can tell that this my time at Ranger School is going to be quite, er, unique. . .

Author's Note: So what did you think? Wow, this chapter is long compared to how long I usually write my chapters! Anyways, please review! Reviews and the people who send them make me happy. And guess what happens when I'm happy? I post new chapter quicker! :)

Thanks so for reading! Please check out my other fic which is called "Rise of Team Five"!

~R-e-v-i-e-w! P-l-e-a-s-e!~

See you guys soon! :D


	2. Guilt, a Few Friends, and a Tour

Author's Note: Hey guys, I'm back! That's right, you're not getting rid of me! Just kidding. I really enjoy writing this, so I think that I'll be updating often. Anyways, so I'm introducing a whole lot of new characters this chapter. The last chapter was more of an introduction to the story. I introduced Aveline and a bunch of the teachers that I don't own in the last chapter. I also introduced Dustin, who will be another main character. A few more main and supporting characters will be introduced today. Oh look, I'm rambling again. Let's get the disclaimer & warning done so I can get on with the story. Dustin, do the disclaimer.

Dustin: I don't feel like it, sorry.

Me: If you do I'll give ya a cookie!

Dustin: Fine. Almiaranger does not own Pokémon. She does own the plot of this story though, and all of her original characters

Me: Here's your cookie.

Dustin: YAY!

WARNING: There's probably going to be spoilers of the Pokémon ranger games in the plot of my story (mostly SoA). If you haven't played the games, then you're probably going to be confused about some things happening in the story.

Me: Roll the chappie, mah peeps!

* * *

Okay, so I do feel a little guilty about ratting Dustin out. And a little guilty that he in might be in trouble. I can practically feel his lime green eyes burning into my soul at this moment out of his anger and annoyance. No big deal though, right? It's not like I killed him or anything. . .

"Thanks for telling me off," Dustin murmured sarcastically. I had a feeling that his comment was generally being directed to me.

"Sorry, I didn't know that they were so strict about that sort of stuff here," I attempt to apologize to the tan haired teen.

"Don't worry about it. I'll just make sure that your challenge tonight is extra hard. No problem." He mumbles, his voice dripping with sarcasm once more.

Wait, hold on for one second! What did he mean by "my challenge"? Is there another school exam or something? I only heard about that one entrance exam that I've already taken. . .

"What do you mean? What challenge?" I ask, my voice rising in both pitch and volume.

"Sssh! Miss April is going to catch us talking with that huge mouth of yours. Pay attention to her for a sec, she's explaining how she's going to torture us in class today."

I frown at his arrogant attitude and take a minute to listen to Miss April.

"Because we have a new student in class today, I'm letting you all have a free period. I'd like you all to meet our new student properly, and to perhaps get to know her," Miss April explains to my delight. Maybe class won't be too bad after all! Dustin's probably exaggerating.

Miss April leaves the room through the door and waves to us. She tells us to behave, like any decent teacher would do. I rise up out of my seat, and look at all the students.

I look at the students one at a time, evaluating each and every one of them individually.

I first look at a girl with bright blond hair that drops down to her mid back. Her eyes are a medium blue like the Puel Sea. Unlike the standard student uniform, her denim jacket was black instead of the usual green. She has a somewhat mysterious aura around her, if anything a she looks a little gothic. A pair of designer glasses framed her face that she suddenly pushes up farther on the bridge of her nose.

Next to the mysterious blond student is a boy with teal green hair that is somewhat short. His eyes are a soft, liquid silver color. Perched atop his head is a pair of black sunglasses. On his faces he wears a mischievous grin, the sort of grin that tells a person, "when you're not looking, I'm going to set off a stink bomb" or something along those lines.

To the left of the teal haired guy is a girl with maroon hair. Her wavy, long hair drops down to her lower back. She has neatly cut bangs the stop about an inch above her eyes, which are just slightly darker in color than her hair. A genuine smile decorates her delicate face. Her skin is slightly paler than my own skin. As she sees me look her over, she flashes me a stunning smile, the kind that I figure would probably make a desperate guy's heart stop. I allow a small smile to creep onto my face into return to hers. I can already tell that this girl is a member of the popular crowd, though not necessarily the snobbish kind.

I then turn to the boy to right of me. His read orange-hair almost looks like it's on fire. I look into deep red eyes, and it almost seems as if I'm sinking into an ocean of salty, red water. His smirk practically told me the same message as the teal haired boy did.

I turn to Dustin again. What had he meant by my 'challenge'? I sigh in defeat, knowing that there's virtually no way that I can pry the secret out from his lips. I decide to discard the thought of figuring out this challenge for the time being. There's no point in pondering it. No answers are coming my way from this guy any time soon.

I look at the slightly gothic girl with platinum blond hair. "I suppose she might be friendly," I try convincing myself. With that thought in mind, I will myself to walk over to her seat.

"Um, hello? Are you awake?" I ask as I approach her, seeing her eyes tightly shut.

Her eyes are closed and her breathing is slow and peaceful. Her chest rises and falls slowly to a steady rhythm. I hesitantly tap her on the shoulder.

Her eyes suddenly fly open and she blurts out, "I didn't do it! It's all, um, Roman's fault!"

'At least she's up now,' I think to myself, sighing. I can see the boy with flaming orange-ish hair glaring daggers at yelling blond the blond.

"Oh, I thought you were Miss April, sorry," She apologizes feebly.

"Sorry Roman. You didn't do anything this time." She then yells to the guy with puffy, flaming hair. The boy shrugs and continues what he had been doing.

The blond then explains "Sleeping in class is a hobby of mine. I do it a lot."

"Em, it's okay. Hey, my name's Aveline," I inform her, desperately trying to fill the awkward silence between her and I. I put my hand out in front of her hoping that she'll shake it.

"Alright, then; I'm Alice, if you were wondering. . ." She stares at the hand I'm holding in front of her. "What're you doing?" She asks.

A puff of air escapes my mouth in the form of a sigh. "This girl's is a lost cause," I think to myself. I at her face and see a bizarre look in her oceanic blue eyes.

"It's called a hand shake," I tell her in a slightly irritated voice. It's a good thing that this girl's blond, because if she wasn't, I'd be wondering what the heck is wrong with her.

"Oh yeah. . ." She responds slowly as realization hits her. She still makes no attempt to shake my hand so I lower it so it's next to me.

"Sorry, I'm still sorta drowsy from my nap." She says as she blinks a few times, still adjusting her view to light of the room. "I'm happy that you've joined our class," She started out loudly. Then she continues in a whisper that only her and I can hear, "It gets a really annoying with me and Strawberry Shortcake being the only girls in the class." I take note that she's referring to the girl with long, maroon hair.

I raise my eyebrow at the odd nickname and she continues, "Her real name is Macy Farrell. She has absolutely zero intelligence. She's popular, fashionable, and that's pretty much all there is to her. I try my hardest to avoid her." I can tell by the way that Alice speaks that she really doesn't like this Macy girl.

Now that Alice is waking up, I can see that she's much smarter than I had thought. It's a wonder that she sleeps in class yet is intelligent all the same.

"Hey, would you like it if my friend and I showed you around the school campus? It'll be useful to know where and where not to go." I take a minute and think about the offer that she's giving me.

'This opportunity might be useful for whatever the 'challenge' is. It might have to do with knowing the school grounds well. It would probably be a good idea to take her up on her offer. Besides, it'll probably help us become friendlier.' I think carefully, trying looking at the situation from every angle.

"Sounds great," I reply to her offer. She smiles genuinely at my response and says, "Great! Just wait until you meet Dahlia. You'll love the girl. Well, you'll either love her or be driven far out of your own mind by her. . ."

* * *

"Who's _she_?" says a girl in an accusing voice. The girl has super bright neon pink hair. Her eyes are a bright ruby red; almost as bright as her candy colored hair. Like Alice, her denim uniform jacket isn't green, but instead white tie-dyed with neon orange and pink dye. She's also about an inch taller than me, which is a bit surprising considering that I'm pretty tall for my age. Her nails are decorated with highlighter-yellow nail polish. I have this weird feeling that the girl's into bright, neon colors. . .

"This is Alice. She's a new student in Ranger School. I thought that it'd be a good idea to show her around. What do you think?" Alice proposes to the flamboyant teen.

She shrugs and responds, "That's fine by me. What's your name, Avian?"

"Exuse me?" I ask her, a bit confused.

"Avian means of, pertaining to, or resembling a bird." states Dahlia.

"I know that!" I snap at her.

"Why's she calling me Avian, though?" I think to myself.

"You're wearing flight goggles." The neon fanatic states calmly, still keeping a knowing demeanor.

"Oh," I respond to her. This girl looks bright, colorful, and flamboyant, yet cool, calm, and intelligent. What's up with that?

I then take a look at my surroundings. We're all directly in front of the Ranger School. A grassy plain is in front of the school with a few Pokémon roaming on it, mostly Pichus, Bidoofs, and the occasional Tailow. In the middle of the green plain is a large circle with the ranger school capture symbol inside of it.

The flying Tailows remind me of Stella. How is she dealing with the family without me around to care for her? Is she behaving? Has she gotten annoyed with my brother yet and possibly kidnapped him? I sure hope she's going to kidnap him! I snapped back into reality as Dahlia started speaking.

"You've taken the school exam and have seen the capture room, right?" Dahlia asked me.

"Mhmm," I answer her.

"Then I suppose that I don't have to show you the capturing room." Alice concludes.

"Hey Alice, I have a good idea of a place to show Aveline. . ." Dahlia says a bit suspiciously, her lips curling into an evil smirk.

"What? Where?" Alice asks her; clearly confused of where Dahlia is referring to. I'm just as puzzled as Alice too it seems.

She casually walks over to Alice. Dahlia cups her one of her hands to the left side of her own face and whispers into her ear. Dahlia's lip cease moving, and she takes a swift step away from the now worried looking blond haired girl.

"Dahlia, I don't know if that'd be a good idea. I mean it's only her first day. . ." Alice stammers. I take note that she looks a bit shaken from the message Dahlia had passed on to her.

"You know what; we won't show her right now. Oh, I have an even better idea! We should tell Dustin about and maybe he can maybe, you know. . ." Alice seems to like this idea a little more for some reason.

"Okay, sounds like a plan. Anyways, we should probably get this tour moving. First, we might as well show you the other classroom and their teacher."

* * *

"HEY MR. HAYDEN!" Dahlia screams through a near sound proof door, or so it seems. "Are ya in there? We're showing a new student around school." The gold-painted handle slowly turns and a click can be heard from the inside. The door opens and a man in his mid twenties opens the door. His deep blue eyes are showing a bit of annoyance towards a certain ruby eyed student.

He replies in an annoyed tone, "If I let you all in, will you stop screaming?"

Dahlia quickly slaps on her most sweet and innocent face and replies to the teacher, "Why of course, Mr. Hayden!"

The man sighs and uses his hands to motion to the inside of the classroom, granting us permission to enter.

The room looks nearly identical to my own classroom. The only two differences are the numerous name tags on his desk that read "Mr. Hayden" and the name written on the chalkboard.

The dark brown haired teacher turns to me, all hints of annoyance vanishing instantly.

He states in a warm tone, "You must be Aveline Harper, the newest student."

I raise my left eyebrow in confusion and think to myself, "How does he already know my name?"

"Mr. Kaplan has been waltzing around the school grounds telling everyone that someone has scored much higher than normal on the entrance exam." He glances at me once more, "Apparently the name of the student who did so is named Aveline."

I knew that Mr. Kaplan had said something about an S-Rank capture, but I didn't know that had meant that I had gotten a high score.

"Anyways, it's nice to meet you Aveline." He finishes.

"We'll see you later Mr. Hayden. We still have a lot of the building to show Aveline, 'kay?" Alice tells him.

"That's fine. It's great that you two are making an attempt to get along with our new student." And with that comment, we continued our tour.

Dahlia, Alice, and I all climb the stairs so she can show me the final location of the tour, which happens to be the dorm rooms.

* * *

"And last but definitely not least, these are the dorm rooms." Alice droned. This tour is starting to get quite boring. It sure is a good thing that it's almost over!

"Hello dears; what can I do for you?" says a woman that looks around thirty years old.

I hear Alice respond, "Hi Janice, I just wanted to introduce you to the newest student. Her name is Aveline."

"It's wonderful to meet you, Aveline! My name's Janice and I take care of all of the students here. I cook, clean, and care for all of you. If you need me just ask. I have to go clean the Boy's Dorm Room." And with that, she rushed into a blue door in between two windows on the right side of the room.

The flooring of the room was like the rest of the building, plain wooden paneled. In the back of the room are three large, wooden tables, most likely used for eating. The one off to the left had eight blue stools, or four on the right and left sides of it. The table to the right of the room also had the same seating arrangement, the only difference being the red colored stools. The middle table had a somewhat different seating arrangement. On the left of the table are four blue stools. On the right side are four red stools. This probably meant that girls and boys sit at this table. On the right side of the room is a large, red door leading into the girl's dorm room. The door is in between two windows.

"Girls eat at the red table. Boys eat at the blue table. Alice and I usually eat at the red and blue table with a few of the boys. You don't mind sitting with the boys, do you?" Dahlia asks with a mischievous grin, much like the one she had been wearing outside.

I turn to her and shake my head. I've never really minded sitting near boys. That cooties crap is all fake anyways. I can see a disappointed tugging at Dahlia's lips. I can clearly see that she was hoping for an unsatisfied remark from me.

"Alrighty, then. Let's show you the girl's dorm room," Alice tells me as she tries Dahlia to stop frowning. We all walk towards the red door. Dahlia tugs at the silver handle and the door slowly opens slowly. I take my first few steps inside and I look around.

The floor, of course, is wooden paneled. I'm standing on top of a checkered red and pink, circular rug right now, though. In each of the room's four corners are bunk beds. The bed sheets are maroon in color. In the back of the room is a large window with rosy red-ish pink curtains. In front of the window is a large dresser that is tan of the top with maroon drawers. Next to the dresser on both sides are small night stands. The left one had a lamp on its top.

"This room is way too pink," I remarked. I am right, the only non pink or red items in the rooms are the wooden floor the tan frames of our bunk beds, a white flower vase with a blue stripe, and the usual burgundy wall.

Alice scrunches up her nose, clearly not fond of the room's color and pushes up her glasses. Dahlia simply shrugs, liking the pink atmosphere of the room. Of course she loved this pink filled room; her hair is a brighter shade of it than anything else in this dang school!

Alice responds to me, "I agree. The pink has to go. This room would look a whole lot better if its theme was black and grey." I sigh and nod at her. Dahlia rolls her eyes.

Then, someone knocks on the door. "Girls, it's time for lunch! Come on out and eat with the rest of the students, 'kay?" yells a voice that recognize as Janice's.

"Alright, we'll be there in a minute!" Alice yells back to her. We all exit the room and head over to lunch.

Author's Note: Wow, another pretty long chapter. I've been writing long chapters lately, but that's okay. I like them better this way. Yeah, I cut out a bunch of parts in the tour, but do you really just wanna read a bunch of descriptions? I know that I don't. If you do want me to lengthen the tour, say so in your review.

What do you think of the story so far?

Who's your favorite character?

What place on campus do you think that Dahlia wanted to show Aveline? (HINT: It's not the basement. Sorry.)

Yeah, that one right below this story that spells out R-e-v-i-e-w!

Please review!

~Almiaranger, the Evil Authoress


	3. Lunch, a Secret Hideout, and a boat

Author's Note: AH! It's been a little more than two weeks since the last time I updated this! Sorry for the delay, but I've actually been social! Anways, I'm revealing the names of a few more characters this chapter.

WARNING: There's probably going to be spoilers of the Pokémon ranger games in the plot of my story (mostly SoA). If you haven't played the games, then you're probably going to be confused about some things happening in the story.

Disclaimer: Do I own Pokémon? No. What would happen if I _did_ own Pokémon? Well, it'd be a total disaster and no one would like it. xD

With those few things said, roll the chappie! :D

Alice, Dahlia, and I exit the Girl's Dorm room. I can see many students seated at the three tables. In fact, two of the tables are already full. The table in the middle is right now seating four boys on one side, while the red chairs on the other side of the table are empty.

"We always sit in the red chairs at the middle table, okay?" Dahlia whispers to me.

I nod, still staring directly at the table. Our group of three continues forward to the table. I end up sitting in between Dahlia and Alice, and to my disdain, across from Dustin. I can see two boys to the left and right of Dustin, both of them in the class I'd attended earlier. The one sitting to the left of Dustin is the one with flaming orange-red hair and wine red eyes. To Dustin's right is that one kid who has liquid silver eyes and short teal hair. I now direct my deep violet eyes to Dustin to see his electric lime orbs burning into mine. He's obviously still set off from me telling him off. I manage to distort my lips into a smirk, winning our stare down as he tares his eyes away from mine.

I direct my vision at the silver eyed boy and say to him, "I don't believe I know your name."

He seems to hear me and responds, "My name's Nathan. You're that new girl Aveline, right?" He asks me.

I nod in response and ask him while pointing my finger at Dustin, "Do you know why this weirdo across from me climbed through the window to get into class this morning?"

My comment about Dustin automatically earns me a glare from him, his electric orbs meeting my own once again.

I see Nathan shrug out of the corner of my eyes and say, "I have no idea. He hasn't been speaking since that interesting event where you ratted him out in class."

This comment increased the already present grin on my face. I had obviously disturbed Dustin by telling on him.

"Alright, then; thanks for the info, Nathan," I tell the kid with sunglasses on his head. He gives me a quick nod in response. I continue my stare down with Dustin for a few moments.

I then question him without tearing my intense gaze from his eyes, "Where were you before class today?"

He snaps at me a bit too quickly, "Why should I tell you?"

"Because if you don't tell me, I'll harass you for the rest of your life,"

"That's not a very nice thing to do,"

"I'm aware of that," I sneer back at him.

"After lunch, we have a few hours to do homework, as you all know. If you guys want, I can show you what I've been doing out there." Dustin tells us while pointing to a window. A grin forms on his face.

I'm the first one to reply to his offer. I tell him, "I'm in," and then look at Alice.

"Fine, fine; it's not like I wanna to get left out or anything. I guess that I'll come with you guys." Alice sighs and pushes up her glasses.

Dahlia shrugs and mumbles, "Whatever. This place needs more excitement anyways."

The kid with burning orange hair says, "I've got nothing better to do, so I guess that's okay."

Nathan nods his head and says, "I've been wondering where you've been lately, so sure, I'll come."

"Alright everyone, lunch is ready!" Janice yells as she enters the room. She carries out a giant, plastic bowl of Spaghetti. She places the bowl in the middle of our table, which happens to be right in front of Dustin and I. Janice dashes out of the room once again, and renters holding another bowl of spaghetti for a different table.

I move forward and grab the serving ladle for the spaghetti. Scooping up a generous amount, I use my other hand to lift up my plate to catch the pasta that I pour onto it. I don't even bother to dump some Tomato sauce on top of it, for I'm far too hungry to wait any longer. At that moment, I temporarily forget my eating habit of only eating a small portion of the food. Instead, I immediately gorge on my spaghetti.

Right now, I'm with Alice, Dahlia, Dustin, Nathan, and Roman. We're all sitting under a tree near the school gates.

"Alright, so is everyone clear on the plan?" Dustin asks us all after finishing his announcement. I sigh in response. I can tell that he's come up with this plan on the spot due to his meaningless rambling and horrible stuttering.

We all nod agreeing that his plan is sensible and actually quite believable. I take note in my mind that he's quick to come up reasonable plans on the spot, despite his stuttering.

"Alright then, let's go back to our dorms then. It's almost homework hour," He tells us.

We all run upstairs to our dorm rooms. Us girls pile into the Girl's Dorm room and the boys into the Boy's Dorm Room, respectively.

In our dorm room, I see three girls already inside. They're sitting on the bottom of the bunk bed in the top right corner chatting.

I see a girl with extremely long platinum blond hair tied up into a ponytail say in a valley girl accent, "I've heard that there's, like, a new girl in school. I think I heard that her name is, like, Ava lee or something. They say that she's, like, really, really good at capturing Pokémon!"

I have to bite my tongue to keep from screaming. I've always hated people who use the words like, totally, and really excessively. Is it just me, or are most people who use those words often just popular snobs? I hope that these girls are different.

I notice that these girls are all wearing different colored uniform jackets from the usual dark green. They all happen to be wearing hot pink ones. Once again, I must restrain myself from screaming.

On the right side of the girl with blond hair, I see a girl with dark green hair that cascades down to her mid back. I can see her deep brown eyes flash with a pang of jealousy at the words of the blonde's words.

"She's not as great as me, right?" She asks her friend innocently.

I see a girl with maroon hair, otherwise known as Macy answer, "I don't know. Only Mr. Kaplan and Ms. Clair have seen her in action." The green haired girl frowns in distaste at Macy's response.

Dahlia whispers to me, "Just pretend that they don't exist. Alice sleeps in the bunk bed in the bottom left corner if you want to sleep with her. You'll have to take the top bunk, though. I already have to bunk with Macy, so I suggest you either sleep with Alice or in the empty bunk bed."

I decide to take Dahlia's advice of bunking with Alice, so I head over to the rosy pink bunk bed in the bottom left corner of the room. I climb up the ladder to the top bunk and drop my backpack which I had been carrying for the last few hours. I can see Alice lying on the bunk below me with her eyes closed and arms folded underneath her head.

I roll my eyes at silly Alice "We should get going. Dahlia's already left and it's almost time to meet Dustin."

"Ugh, fine," She mumbles as she slowly opens her eyes and lazily shifts into a sitting position. I sigh and grab her arm knowing that there's no way that she's going to get up and go by herself. I drag her off of the bottom bunk to the rosy pink door.

"Are you ready to go _now_?" I ask her.

She shrugs and says, "I guess. Now let's go see Janice."

I turn the brass door handle and push open the dorm to the other room. I can see Janice still picking up our plates from lunch and setting them on a double shelved cart so she can hand wash them.

"Hey, Janice!" I call out to the motherly caretaker.

She sets a plate down of the first level of her cart and says, "Hello dears. Is there something you need?"

Alice says to her, now fully awake, "We were studying some note that we took in class and left them outside. Can we go get them?"

Janice tells us with a sweet smile, "Of course you can. Don't be gone too long, though." And with that said, she turns back to one of the dining tables and continues collecting plates.

We rush out of the room and speed down the stairs to the school's main floor. Alice and I rush through the tan hallways and then straight to the door. Still running, I throw open the door. I look around at the lush green field and step outside. Deep, grey storm clouds hover above us countering the once lovely blue. A light sprinkle of rain runs down the dark sky.

"It's raining," I state blandly.

"That's one way to state the obvious," Alice mutters.

"So, where is this grand Pledge Stone that Dustin mentioned?" I ask, having no idea where this Pledge Stone is.

"See the giant cargo ship over there?"

"Um, yeah. Why is that boat there, anyways?"

"Have you ever heard Barlow, the Area Leader of Vientown?"

"Before you mentioned him a second ago; no. At this second; yes."

"Well, that's what happens when you let him drive a giant boat,"

"Oh," I say as we walk down the steps towards the Pledge Stone. I reach the bottom, and see a short, white picket fence in front of me. Beyond the fence is a sparkling blue ocean. To my far left s a disheveled cargo ship which is parked (or put better words, crashed into) a dock made for small boats. Behind me is a tall, rocky cliff with a few trees at its top. I walk to my left and see a square, elevated platform crafted out of dark grey concrete with stairs built into its front. In the platform's center is statue of the student capture symbol set on top of a metal podium. In front of the podium and capture symbol is plaque with writing scrawled onto it. I decide to read it to myself.

"I will become a Ranger who understands the feelings of Pokémon." -Spenser, Area Leader of the Ringtown Ranger Base, Fiore

"I hope to protect even the weakest of Pokémon." -Elita, Area Leader of the Wintown Ranger Base, Fiore

"I pledge to become a Ranger who can be counted on!" -Barlow, Area Leader of the Vientown Ranger Base, Almia

"I'll work for the local community! Joking is important, too!" –Crawford, an Area Ranger of the Vientown Ranger Base

"I work for the smiles of Pokémon and People!" –Kate, a Top Ranger of the Ranger Union

"Who are the people that wrote on here?" I ask Alice, pointing to the golden plaque.

"The people on there are graduation representatives. Basically, they were the best students of their class. If you happen to be one, you're aloud to write your own message on there after you graduate," Alice explains to me.

"So. . .where're Dustin and the others?" I ask Alice, confused about where the others are at the moment.

"In our underground hideout,"

"And where would that be?" I ask her.

"Behind the capture symbol and podium is a secret stairwell. It leads to a place where we meet up and hang out every once in a while,"

"Did you guys make it yourselves?"

"Actually, no. On the first day of school, we were all sitting under trees near the Pledge Stone doing our homework. Dustin was getting bored, so he looked around a little and of course, he found this place. The only problem with it when we found it was the coat of dust that covered the area," Alice tells me as we walk down to the bottom of the stairs.

As I step down from the flight of stairs, I can see all of the room's features. It's actually pretty big; being only a little smaller than the girl's dorm room. In the back of the room are four bookcases, two in the left corner and the other two on the right corner. A picture frame hangs in the center of the bookshelf. In the picture are three teenagers around my age. A wooden table and a few chairs stand a few feet in front of the left bookcases. On the table's top is an old green book. A pile of cardboard boxes lay in the bottom right corner. Dahlia, Dustin, Nathan, and Roman are sitting on the wooden stools around the table.

"So you girls have finally decided to drop in? Fantastic," Dustin states sarcastically. I sigh at Dustin's remark and sit in a stool next to him.

Nathan asks Dustin impatiently, "Can ya just show us why we're here already?"

Dustin answers, "Fine. I decided to have you all meet me here because this place is pretty close to where I was this morning. Any guesses on where I was?"

I say while smirking at Dustin, "Were you getting eaten by Sharpedo in the ocean?"

He says with a frown, "No. I should probably tell you all before anyone else makes another smart remark," Dustin says as he directs a glare at me and then continues, "You've all seen the Cargo Ship's outside before now. I'd been wondering about what the heck is inside of that place, so during homework time and sometimes before school, I've been sneaking out of school and taking a look around the ships inside."

Everyone around me looks a bit shaken. What's so horrible about sneaking around the inside of an old ship? I sure didn't see any problem in doing so. In fact, it actually sounds quite fun.

"So we're gonna look inside of the ship? Cool!" I'm the first one to speak. Everyone looks at me like I'm nuts, except for Dustin of course. _He_ doesn't even give me a second glance.

Dahlia starts, "I not sure if that's a great idea, Dustin. There's supposedly a bunch of strong, wild Pokémon in there. Our styler levels are pretty low, and capturing the Pokémon in their probably isn't a smart idea."

Alice seems to be thinking the same thing as Dahlia, as I can tell from the expression on her face.

"Dahlia's right. I mean, the last ranger that went into that ship was Kate. And even though Kate was a powerful Ranger, she still admits that she had a tough time in there. I mean seriously, look at ourselves. Kate is a top ranger for god's sake, while we're only Student Rangers. _And_ only three out of the six of us even have stylers!" Alice says, clearly panicking.

I'm surprised at the last thing that Alice says. I'd assumed that all six of us were aspiring rangers. I take this as a chance to ask who wants what job.

"Hey Dahlia and Alice, what job did you come here to be?" I ask them.

Alice says, "I came to be a ranger like you and Dustin."

Dahlia tells me, "I actually came here to be a mechanic. I just love taking things apart, it's so much fun! Nathan, Roman and I are going to be Mechanics too, by the way.

Dustin starts to tap his fingers on the wooden table out of impatience. I can see

that he clearly wants to get a move on.

"Okay, so we'll have a vote on whether we're going inside the ship or not. Raise your hand if you want to go inside."

My hand, Dustin's hand, Nathan's hand, and Roman's hand all shoot up. I see Dahlia and Alice looking hesitant.

Alice stammers, "W-why don't we go another day, like tomorrow or something? I mean, we're just going to get in trouble. And besides, tomorrow is Saturday, meaning that we have no classes, and the teachers will be going home for the weekend. We can even plan where and when we'll meet. How does th-that sound?"

I think about what Alice says. She does have a good point. Exploring that old ship right now would just be trouble. It's getting dark and it would be hard to look around.

Roman says, "Sounds like a pretty good plan to me. No teachers to rat us out, just Janice and Lamont will be around. I think Alice has a good plan." Roman says, while turning towards Alice and throwing her a striking smile. Alice blushes at his actions.

"Sounds good to me. I can't wait to show you guys all of the cool Pokémon in there. I found one that's really cool in particular, though."

Dahlia scoffs, "What did you find, a Pidgey or something? I wouldn't be surprised if you would call something like that amazing."

Dustin glares at her, "Shut up. I found something _way_ better than a Pidgey."

"Just tell us what you found already!" I spit at him. This kid has got to drop this whole "mysterious act" thing that he's so fond of.

He smirks, "A bit impatient, are we? Fine, I'll tell ya. I found a _Houndoom_."

Nathan's mouth drops open and he mumbles in surprise, "A-a Houndoom? You mean the dog thing that looks like it jumped out of hell?"

Dustin smirks proudly and continues, "Yep, I found a Houndoom. I captured it, too. Every time I go to the ship, he's right in the room nearest to the hole that I crawl through into the ship. I'm going to make him my partner when I graduate!"

I roll my eyes. I wonder how many times he got burnt by that Houndoom before he captured it. I smirk at my hilarious imagination where is Dustin running around a ship and screaming hysterically while a Houndoom chases him around shooting flamethrowers. Heh, that's fun to think about.

~Dahlia's POV~

'I still have to tell Dustin about my idea for Aveline's test of courage. I know that he'll just love it.' I think to myself as I push one of my neon pink bangs.

"So what time should we meet here tomorrow?" I ask in attempt to change the subject.

Roman says, "How about around four thirty? That way, we'll have already eaten dinner and it won't be dark outside for an hour or two."

Dustin answers, "Sounds like a plan. Four thirty okay with you guys?" The others nod their heads in response. I roll my eyes.

Does Dustin really think that we have anything better to do? I mean seriously, school is a little boring when we have classes, but it's even worse when we don't. There's absolutely _zero_ to do around here when we're not studying, reviewing notes from class, and learning. Exploring a creep abandoned ship that's full of strong, wild Pokémon is _way_ better than being bored for an eternity. That's just my opinion, though. I'd bet the populars would rather dig their own graves than do this; especially Macy.

Aveline chirps, "Guys, we'd better get back to our dorms. We told Janice we'd only be getting a few things, so she might get suspicious if we stay out much longer."

Alice sighs, "You've got a good point. Let's get out of here before anyone hears us."

"Do you any ideas for Aveline's test of courage?" I ask Dustin. Right now we're walking on the path leading back to our dorms.

He shakes his head, "None yet. What about you?"

A smirk forms on my face and I say to him in a whisper, "I've got the perfect plan for her." I bend down and whisper my plan into his ear.

Dustin raises his eyebrows in surprise and drawls, "I. . .like it. In fact, I think that we can use it. For once we don't have to use the old 'hide the stylers' plan"

"Yeah. I like my plan a lot better than stealing a wooden crate from outside and shoving Alice's styler inside and putting it in Ms. April's room."

"So do I. Isn't it ironic that students have been doing this here for decades, but no one's ever been caught?"

I frown at him, "Don't say that. You could jinx Aveline."

"Isn't it obvious that I'm trying to? Aveline got me caught, and now I want her to."

"Try being nicer to her, will ya? Give her a chance."

"Why should I? She ratted me out. That's not a great first impression."

"I don't care. You two would make a great couple, you know." I smirk mischievously. I can see him blushing out of the corner of my eye.

"Whatever. We've gotta get to bed, okay? I'll see you tomorrow."

"Fine. G'night, Dahlia."

"Night, Dustin" And after saying that, I walk inside of the Girl's Dorm Room and try to fall asleep.

Author's Note: Three chapters down, oh so many to go. I hope you liked chapter three. Wow, I don't have too much to say. Anyways. . .

_~Review Please!___


	4. Courage, a Tangrowth, and Unknown Voices

Author's Note: If you checked my profile yesterday, then you would've known that I'm BACK BABEH! That's right, I'm back, and better than ever. It took me quite a few hours to write, and I put in a lot of effort, so please enjoy!

WARNING: There's probably going to be spoilers of the Pokémon Ranger games in the plot of my story (mostly SoA). If you haven't played the games, then you're probably going to be confused about some things happening in the story.

Disclaimer: Nope, don't own the Pokémon Company. I do, however, own the plot of this fanfic and almost all of the OCs. I don't own any of the canon characters in this fic. I also don't own technically don't own the OC known as Alice. Alice is owned by my awesome bffl who is known as Terradoll.

With all of that stuff said and out of the way, rolling the chappie!

~ReViEw!~ (Please. :P)

* * *

"Aveline," I hear a familiar voice whisper into my ear. The voice is followed by someone's hand shaking my shoulder.

"Mmmff," My voice is muffled by my pillow. What could someone want from me so late at night? I pick face up off of my pillow and glance at the analog clock that happens to be on the wall in front of me. Correction- What could someone want from me at 12:32 in the morning? I mean seriously, I may stay up pretty much all night anyway from force of habit, but I hadn't imagined that anyone else in this school would be the same way. I'd always sucked sleeping.

I look to the left of me, and see someone standing on the ladder that leads up to the bunk that I'm currently on. It happens to be Alice, I can tell from the moon's light floating in through the window. I look at her face. She seems wide awake and very alert, even a bit worried. Why would she be so worried? Is there something wrong? Well anyway, it seems like we have another Noctowl of night here at Ranger School.

I shift into a sitting position and face Alice, motioning for her to sit on my bed.

"What's wrong?" I attempt. It's a good start, anyway.

"Th-the others want to see you. They need you to, er, do something for them." She manages to stutter.

So the other students are up, too? What is this place, night school? There's something a little fishy here. I mean, why everyone would be asking for _me_ of all people so early in the morning is beyond me. I had been so deep in thought that I hadn't noticed that Alice is dragging me into the center of the room at this moment.

She whispers, "Get on your ranger uniform and don't ask any questions. Don't bother grabbing your green jacket, though. I brought a little gift for ya." The blue eyed girl quickly climbs down the wooden ladder and digs around in a black backpack that she seems to own.

While she does that, I climb out of the bunk bed and down the ladder. I land on the Maplewood floor safely and head over to the dresser in the back of the room. I pull on my own drawer to reveal my ranger uniform and a few other casual outfits for days that we don't attend school. I grab my ranger uniform, minus my usual green jacket like Alice had instructed me to do and then head back over to the bunk bed and change into my uniform.

Now fully dressed, I walk over to Alice. She's hiding both of her hands behind her back.

"Well, here it is. Hope that ya like it," Alice moves her hands from behind herself to reveal a new uniform jacket. The only difference is that this one happens to be amethyst purple instead of the usual emerald green.

"Thanks so much! I never really liked the green one that much. It's kind of itchy." She hands me the jacket, a genuine smile on her face. I move my hands towards the material inside of the jacket and feel that it's a lot softer then the scratchy material of my old one. I toss on the jacket and Alice pulls on my arm.

"It's time to meet the others. They're outside of both dorms." I nod and follow her out of the room. I will the pinkish red door open to see a crowd of people all standing in a circle. I know some of them but a few of them look unfamiliar. Dustin stands directly in front of me, an evil smirk present on his face. I have a bad feeling about this. . .

He starts to speak, his eyes glimmering with amusement, "Thanks for finally joining us. Now it's time to tell you exactly _why_ you're here."

I gulp in response. I can tell that whatever he's about to make do for him will be endless torture. But why me? Why couldn't he just get someone else to do whatever he wanted? Does he enjoy harassing the life out of me? Never mind that last question, I think I can answer it myself. . .

"Ever since the beginning of ranger school, the students have had a tradition. It has been passed down and continued for years upon years," He continues. As he speaks on, I can see a glint of ancients shown in his eyes as he tells a tale older then even ourselves.

"The tradition is this. Whenever a new student joins this school, they must overcome a challenge that is made up by us students. Our tradition is named "Test of Courage," respectively. The name sure does describe what you'll be doing, Aveline."

Dahlia adds, "You don't do this by yourself, though. You do have someone to help you, though. The person who accompanies you is the one who sits to the right of you in class,"

I can feel my face pale as realization hits me. The person who sits to the right of me is _Dustin_. Why oh why did Miss April do this to me? I don't deserve this, Arceus dang it!

Dustin's face is about as pale as mine as he yells, "W-what? I am _not_ going with _her_, I assure you. There's no way." He crosses his arms stubbornly and grits his teeth stubbornly.

I distort my dace into a frown and think, 'Wow, he really hates me passionately. All I did was rat him out, and I've only done that once. He didn't even get into any trouble! He must have another reason for disliking me so much. But what could it be? Never mind that, though. I have other things to focus on at this moment, including making it through this challenge- alive.'

I walk over to him and grit my teeth. If he wants to play this game, then I'll just have to make him go with me. Why am I doing this exactly? First of all, this school is still too new to me to be able to navigate through it smoothly on my own. Secondly, what kind of retard sneaks out of their dorm _alone_ in the middle of the night?

My glare on him softens and I begin, "Look; I'm not all too thrilled about having to go through this with you of all people either. Why don't we just get this over with quickly and try hardest not to make each other suffer?"

A short sigh escapes his lips and he says, "Fine, I guess. I'll let Dahlia tell you what your test is," I nod and he beckons Dahlia forward.

She starts, "I made this challenge up myself, so all credit goes t' me," She pauses and smirks evilly, "You all know that top ranger Kate graduated from this very school to become a ranger. What most of you don't know is what happened at her graduation ceremony. During the ceremony, two Tangrowth broke into rampage and started attacking everyone at the ceremony. Kate then captured one of them to calm it down while Top Ranger Keith captured the other. Ever since the ceremony, one of those same Tangrowth has been living in a small cave embedded in a cliff near the school's entrance. For a while, there was a giant boulder was blocking the entrance, until one day a ranger came along and crushed it. No one has gone into the cave since the boulder has been crushed, but most of us assume that the Tangrowth still resides inside of it." She pauses to take in a breath and then continues in an ominous tone, "Aveline, your mission is to journey to the cave and capture that Tangrowth. Try your hardest, and _do not_ get caught.

I gulp. This isn't going to be easy, not one bit. I don't have any idea of how the heck I'm going to do this. Hell, even trying to capture that thing is almost suicide. Why would they even try to make me do such a thing?

Dahlia walks a little closer to me and whispers into my ear, "Give me your styler. I'll only need it for a minute," I quirk my eyebrow, but hesitantly hand over my styler. I watch her dig into her pocket and remove a small screwdriver and a tiny green object that looks like it belongs in some sort of super-computer. Dalia walks over to the table in the middle of the room and sits on an empty stool. She then begins to dissemble my styler by taking off its back using her screwdriver. After that, she then picks up the chip, snaps it into a small hole in my styler, and puts the styler's back on it once again using her screwdriver. Rising off of the red stool and pushing it back into its rightful place, she strolls back over to me and hands me the styler.

"That chip I put into there will give your styler defense from grass and poison type attacks. When Tangrowth attacks your Styler, only half as much energy will be drained." She smiles at me.

I smile and hug her, praising her for her implanting the chip into my styler. When I finally stop showering her with compliments, I direct my attention to Dustin.

"You ready to move out?" I ask him.

He shrugs and avoids eye contact as he says, "I guess so."

I frown at his sudden awkward behavior. What's wrong with boy? One minute he's steaming at me for making me come with him and the next he's trying his hardest to say few words and avoid me, being almost shy.

I slowly raise my hand and grab his shoulder and ask, "You sure? You seem worried, even a bit scared. . ." He nods, still avoiding my gaze. He hadn't been avoiding my eyes at all before, even taking minutes to glare at me. I shake my head and try to snap myself out of thinking like this. I am I worrying for Dustin? Certainly not!

I murmur, "All right. Let's get going then." I walk out of the room, Dustin following behind me. On my back, I can feel the eyes of many students watching us.

* * *

"So. . ." I drawl, trying to cover up the awkward silence between Dustin and I.

"I think we're almost there," Dustin tells me.

My flashlight helps illuminate a small amount of the usual darkness. It helps, but not by much. I flick around the beam of light and study the peaceful features of the field in front of me.

I'm standing on the straight dirt path not too far from the school in front of the grassy school capture symbol. A cliff with twenty foot drop is ahead of us with a flight of concrete stairs built into it so we can get to the cliff's bottom. A white picket fence lines the edge of the cliff to prevent students from jumping or falling off of the cliff. Not far below the fence is our destination, Tangrowth's cave. Dustin and I race down the stairs, and down in front of the cave.

Partially paralyzed in fear, I gulp and say, "Um, I guess this is it?" Dustin nods, seemingly still as well. It's still wet and rainy outside, and I draw my new jacket closer to me. The tunnel in front of us seems dark and unchanging.

Dustin is the first out the two of us to make a move towards the cave. He takes one hesitant step towards the cave and turns around to look at me, "You coming," I'm about nod back at him, but my response must've come too late. He takes a step closer to me, puts on a reassuring smile, and grabs one of my tiny pale wrists. My face suddenly flushes, and I instinctively bite my lip. I look up at his lime eyes, glinting like a cat in the darkness. Feeling a sudden surge of new energy, I pull ahead, my wrist still clasped in his warm hands.

Now inside of the cave, I flash around my flashlight. Now that I'm actually in here, it seems pretty small. I move my beam light to a corner in the cave which is covered in pale yellow hay. On the lump of hay is a deformed, tangled mess of blue vines. What the heck is this thing?

Dustin whispers to me, "Aveline, be careful! That blue thing's a Tangrowth. They're really big and strong."

I just continue staring at the mess of blue before me. It takes up more room than seven academy students, and towers around two feet above me. I carefully grab my green school styler from its designated pants pocket, and grip it tightly in my hand.

Before lights out, I'd studied the functions of the loopy-thingy I'd been given, and now I know a little more about it. Some of these things include its basic functions, target clears, and the actual name of my loopy-thing.

I moved my thumb onto the button I had used before to release the capture disk. As I did this, I heard a grunt from the blue lump in front of me. Its white eyes fluttered open, and it looked quite disturbed, probably because we had awoken it from a deep slumber. As it stood up, it got even taller than before, and made yet another odd grunting noise. It raises a pair of thin blue arms with red ends. All of a sudden, they start glowing purple, and a lavender dust is launched at us.

"Aaaah! What the heck is that stuff?" Dustin yelled, probably to no one in particular. He points at the gas-like substance coming out of the Tangrowths arm.

I thought about it for a moment, but wasn't able to come to a reasonable conclusion, "I have no idea. I'm going to stay away from it. Keep your styler out in case it tries to attack us,"

At my words, the Tangrowth suddenly lunges forward, attempting to hurt me, probably. I scream and dive to the far right in attempt to not get hit. I land on the ground with my stomach down, my knees now scuffed and scratched up. My body aches all over, not used to the condition.

As smart and intelligent as I am, I've never been much of an athlete. I'd always been picked last in my old school for team sports and as a partner in gym class, unless one my friends were in the class with me.

I ease myself off my ground and onto my feet as fast as I can, desperate to avoid any attacks directed in my direction again. Now off the ground, I push down on the button that releases the capture disk. Said disks drop onto the ground in front of me, and I swiftly move my hand containing the styler closer to me, push a button, and flick my hand to the right. The disk completes a few circles around the monster before a me a few times. The stringy creature lifts an arm straight up and sends a swirling purple gas straight at me. I'm about to dive to the side again, but my styler suddenly begins to glow a brilliant violet, and a purple bubble-like shield is launched out of it that now stands three feet in front of me. I still wait for the lavender gas to hit me, but it never comes. For a moment, I wonder why this is happening, but then remember Dahlia. This must be the poison protection she'd installed into my styler!

That realization made me come to another one- the stuff coming out of Tangrowth must be poison. I turn and look at Dustin, who seems to be frozen in fear, "Dustin!" I yell, "Get behind my shield! That stuff Tangrowth keeps launching is poison! Come inside my shield!" He registers what I've said to him, and rushes to my side, now inside of my glowing bubble.

"Thanks," He mumbles to me, not easily admitting his defeat.

I smirk and respond, "No problem," Tangrowth lunges forward again, and I squeeze my eyes shut. Could this be the end of me? Should I dive to the side again? I all I can do is whimper and fling the arm out in front of me that contains my green capture device. The sound of stomping feet is silenced, and I wonder why. Why would a charging Tangrowth suddenly halt? I crack open one of my eyes and see the Tangrowth patiently waiting in front of me about four feet away. My styler suddenly makes a single shake, as the capture disk snaps back into my styler, and the compartment closes back up. I blink, and then realize that I've captured the Tangrowth!

A giant grin erupts from my face and I turn to Dustin, his mouth gaping at my handiwork. I strike my signature ranger and then say to Dustin, "I did it! I really did it!"

He closes his mouth slowly, and brushes some poison dust out of his hair, "Um, uh, wow. You really were able to capture Tangrowth." I nod, and my grin softens into an honest smile.

"Let's get going, I don't feel like getting caught here; especially with _you_ all people," I tell him.

His face gets a little pale and he nods. I'll bet he was imagining getting caught in a situation like this.

"Um, Tangrowth, you can go back to sleep," I press a button and Tangrowth is released. It collapses on the floor and its eyes close; probably exhausted from our little dual.

"Come on!" I shout as I walk to the caves entrance. Dustin runs up behind me, and I look at the sky for a minute. We are so far from any big city, and there isn't a cloud in sight. I can see so many bright shiny stars all twinkling like little gems in the sky. In the center of the sky is a glowing crescent moon.

"Wow, it's so beautiful," I mutter, still mesmerized by the sky.

Dustin responds to me sounding pretty amazed as well, "Yeah. . . " He looks at me, his eyes showing unreadable emotions. His eyes look so beautiful in the moonlight. . .

Suddenly, I quirk my ears as sound hits them. I'm straining to hear anything at all, but I think I can hear the voice of a man. I turn my head, looking for the source of the voice.

"How do we get in? Are the doors open?" The voice says.

A higher voice responds, "I'm not sure. I'll check,"

I realize that these voices are far from me, as well as far from each other.

"Dustin, do you hear that? I think I hear some people nearby," I whisper to him, snapping out of my dream-like phase

"Yeah, I hear them. Their voices don't seem that familiar, though. None the students sound like that," Dustin tells me. I wish I could back him up, but I still don't know everyone in our little school. I guess I'll just have to trust him.

"I think we should hide in the cave for a little while so they don't find us. What do you think?" I suggest.

"Maybe we could sneak up on them. We still don't know who they are though, so. . ." Dustin trails off and then continues, "You know what, your styler is probably low on energy, we're hurt, and we really have no idea who we're going to face out there. You're right; we should stay in here until we're sure they're gone.

I nod to show my understanding in his logic, "I get what you mean. Just one problem remains: what happens if they're here until dawn breaks?"

He says in a voice near a whisper, "Then . . .We're screwed."

I distort my face into a dissatisfied frown, "I guess that's a risk we're going to have to take." He nods at me, and I shift into a sitting position, still watching the pretty sky above me. Dustin seems to have his head turned the other way, so I turn and look at him. 'He can be decent when relied upon; I've discovered that on this fateful night. What'll I found out next? Who're these people on our campus, and why are they here?' A sigh escapes my lips and I slump against the cave wall as my eyes begin to close.

* * *

A/N: And there you have it! I like this chapter quite a lot. I was thinking of making it a cliffy, but decided this is a little better.

Okay, so I've decided to swap the POV to one of Aveline's classmates for the next chapter. I want you to tell me which person you'd like to see me write through. Your choices are the following:

Dahlia

Alice

Roman

Nathan

Please tell me which you'd like to see through review, or through the poll I've opened. If you want, I can even switch around to each of them. Thanks for reading!

~Almiaranger, the evil authoress


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